Average speed of wild-type CC-1690 and mutant strain CC-3913 of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in response to varying light intensities

Abstract

Chlamydomonas reinhardtii responds to environmental stimuli such as light, carbon dioxide and oxygen with the goal of finding an optimal environment to grow. Their ability to move allows them to find a suitable environment. This study looks at the speeds that C. reinhardtii swim at when exposed to three different light intensities (10 Lux, 270 Lux, 500 Lux). For each, the mutant strain CC-3913 and the wild-type strain CC-1690, there were three replicates per light treatment. All of the replicates were exposed to the three different light intensities with their movement recorded using the DinoXcope. The videos were then projected onto CellTrack a program that calculated the average speed of C. reinhardtii. A two-way analysis of variance test was used to interpret the results. The test revealed three calculated p-values all of which indicated rejection of the null hypotheses, thus providing support for all three alternate hypotheses. For an improved future study, a way to control the heat emitted from the light sources should be enforced.